Elk M1RF2G (GE) wireless false alarms

I had another Elk M1RF2G false alarm today. The false alarm was triggered by a window sensor that I had previous replaced. This is my fourth false alarm caused by faulty wireless sensor/receiver in 18-24 months.

Has anybody else experienced any false alarms with GE wireless sensors? If yes, then did you believe it was a distance problem? Was the sensor defective?

Elk has officially stopped helping DIY as I tried to contact them. The voice response message has a for professionals only recording. Yes, I do understand and agree with this policy - accept when it involves false alarms :angry:. I have an inquiry out to HSS for technical support (no response yet). In previous false alarm incident from 18 months ago, I was able to get Elk to provide some help. At the time, Elk support indicated that I should enable transmittal of restoral codes to alarm company. This way alarm company would see the instantaneous restoral. They indicated that it was difficult to diagnose problem.

I have latest M1RF2G firmware. I am very sure the sensor's batteries are fresh because I just replaced six months ago. The walk test reveals level 6-7 for sensor. I have about 10 wireless sensors. I don’t have the ground plane antenna installed; although I don’t know if this would make any difference.

I just think it’s unacceptable to have repeated false alarms *without* having a way to diagnose the problem. What causes the alarm to trigger without any violation taking place. It’s no fun being at work when the alarm company calls you – sort of ruins your whole day.

Just recently took a Elk Certification class at Automated Outlet. I asked the trainer that exact question about the elk's proness to false alarms with wireless equipment. He stated that the added ground plane antennas matter a great deal when talking about the reliability and range of wireless sensors. Can't confirm the validatey of this statement as I have yet to install our own Elk but it might be a step in the right direction installing the ground plane antennas. I deal with wireless sensor false alarm alarm issue regularly as a security integrator, sometimes its as easy as relacing a sensor other times it comes down to doing a combination of things. Replacing sensor, relocating receiver/transmitter, adding additional receiver, switching the offending sensors zone and location with another to pin down if it is a sensor problem or location problem.

I can't say the Elk is more prone to a false alarm than any other panel, however the items to always check are placement of the devices and wireless receiver. Elk's unit is actually rated a whole lot better in terms of sensitivity and functionality compared to other similar manufacturers.

Also, I would not rule out any interference within the protected area (wifi or cellular) and sometimes moving an item that "appears" to be 100% makes a world of difference. Given the same location, different transmitter, I would suspect location of either the device or RF receiver. Ground plane antennas should be also attached.

Also, make sure you are not running anything like "fast loop response" or similar.

Most false alarms I have experienced are due to faulty tampers on the transmitters. One company in Chicago had tampers falling off some transmitters that were finally recalled.

You can disable the tamper switch on burglar transmitters by defining the hardware hookup type on the M1 zone definition of the wireless transmitter as a normally closed loop, type 1.

Try disabling the tamper and see if the false alarm issue goes away.

Curious why would one not attach the ground plane antennas ?

Ditto... for using the ground plane antenna. I've had 28 of the NX-455 micro contacts in use for almost 2 years now and never had a false alarm (They are set for fast loop response). The battery ran out on one of them a while back and the M1 correctly reported "trouble" on that zone.

hagak said:

Curious why would one not attach the ground plane antennas ?

Click to expand...

The receiver manual leads me to believe the ground plane antennas are unnecessary in "normal" circumstances.
marked Antenna 3 & Antenna 4.

Photon said:

The receiver manual leads me to believe the ground plane antennas are unnecessary in "normal" circumstances.

Antenna Installation​

M1XRF2G is supplied with four (4) antennas. Two (2) of these antennas installed into the top locations marked Antenna1​

& Antenna 2 will be more than adequate for proper receiver performance. The dual antennas ensure signal diversity​

which helps eliminate RF dead spots. The two (2) extra antennas are called Ground Plane Antennas. In extreme​

applications or where maximum range is desired these additional antennas can be installed in the bottom locations​

marked Antenna 3 & Antenna 4.

Click to expand...

I know that I have the same unit. My question is though why would one not install them. It costs nothing and is included. Yes the manual makes it seem as optional but it does not state any downside to using them only positives.

Depends, I've had space issues where I mounted a receiver before, unfortunately, I had no other choice really.

I did not mount the ground plane antennas based on Elk manual. The receiver is located in cramped quarters.

HSS has not responded to my inquiry. I purchase 75% of stuff from AO. Unfortunately, AO do not carry the GE sensors I need. I really need to get to the bottom of this problem; otherwise I will have to replace several wireless sensors. Changing a few things and hoping the problem goes away five months from now is less than acceptable.

How does one go about diagnosing false alarms for RF alarm panels?

Is there some sort of wireless sniffer?

Is there a signal quality analyzer?

Does Elk have some sort of super-secret RF debugging.

I am interested in hearing about anyone else with this configuration. Have they experienced any false alarms with Elk M1RF2G and GE Crystal sensors?

Did the same sensor seem to trip repeatedly?

d.dennerline said:

How does one go about diagnosing false alarms for RF alarm panels?

Is there some sort of wireless sniffer?

Is there a signal quality analyzer?

Does Elk have some sort of super-secret RF debugging.

Click to expand...

I will send you the procedure to display the received RF data on HyperTerminal or some other terminal program when I get back to ELK. This displays the received transmitter TXID's, zone number, and what caused the data to be transmitted. You can run a log and capture the transmissions.

You will need a serial cable to the M1's RS232 serial port or if you have the M1XEP Ethernet module you can make a socket connection to it from HyperTerminal and display the data.

Spanky said:

I will send you the procedure to display the received RF data on HyperTerminal or some other terminal program when I get back to ELK. This displays the received transmitter TXID's, zone number, and what caused the data to be transmitted. You can run a log and capture the transmissions.

You will need a serial cable to the M1's RS232 serial port or if you have the M1XEP Ethernet module you can make a socket connection to it from HyperTerminal and display the data.

Click to expand...

Any chance you could post it here in the forums for all to enjoy? B)

So your receiver is located in cramped quarters. That area is not near metal or water is it? Such as duct work or water tanks? Cause both of those would present an issue.

Here is how to turn on the M1's wireless diagnostic data which will come out of the RS-232 serial port at 115K baud, 8bit, no parity.

From the keypad, press the Elk key, 9 key, > key, enter your installer code, 07 - Globals, > key, 44 - you are at Global G44.
> key, you will see a:00000
Enter 55555 this will turn on the wireless diagnostic data to go out the RS-232 serial port. Enter 55555 a second time will turn off the diagnostic RF data.

When a transmitter message comes into the M1, an ASCII string similiar to this will be displayed on HyperTerminal on your PC. Any terminal program should work to display the data.

A2-Z88-A10020-L0-B0-R0-p0-b0,M5-120-200
A2 = Address 2 receiver sent the data to the M1.
Z88 = The TXID data matched the transmitter data programmed into zone 88.
A10020 = A- GE Door and window sensor, 10020 is the remaining transmitter ID number (TXID).
if the "M" field = M1 for the M1XRF2G Receiver use:
L0 -
B0 - battery state, 0 = OK. 1 = Low
R0 - Reed switch state
p0 - Tamper state
b0 - keyfob button state

if the "M" field = M5 for the M1XRFEG Receiver then use the field shown as "120"
The "20" in the field is a eight bit hex value showing the status of the transmission:
A bit value of 1 is violated, 0 is secure.
bit 7: Loop 1
bit 6: Tamper
bit 5: Reed Loop 2
bit 4: Loop 3
bit 3: Low Battery
bit 2:
bit 1:
bit 0:
These transmissions show the reed activated and then restored:
A2-Z88-A10020-L0-B0-R0-p0-b0,M5-120-200
A2-Z88-A10020-L0-B0-R0-p0-b0,M5-100-200

GE (formerly ITI) has a RF sniffer tool for their devices. I'd have to dig mine up to find the PN.

I completely forgot about the recall on the tamper switches though. I do remember a batch with the wrong size spring came through, also ones that had a case issue.